If I were to compare the 9th anniversary "part change" song and 10th anniversary (free live) one, I'd say the 10th one was worse. Sure Hizumi looked a lot more comfortable playing bass, but his bass solo was a fail of such epic proportions that I shall never forget it. Oh, I loved it so much! 8D

Same as before: I will appreciate any help if there are any mistakes or something needs to be corrected ;)Please do not repost it anywhere. I prefer to keep the translations to my own dark little corner and be responsible for my mistakes and the words I choose.

H: Yeah, by about 10 lives. It was supposed to be 43 cities at first, but then in the end it was 34.

K: We don’t have to think of it as going abroad anymore, right?

Q: Hmm.

K: It is our soil.

Everyone: (laughs).

T: Our fans can’t think of it that way, right?

H: But in a way we ourselves think so, don’t you think?

Q: But the tour was America only, wasn’t it? You toured around the country for a long time so if speaking whether or not it was very different from Japan, I suppose it wasn’t.

K: I wonder if as a result we played fewer numbers of lives in Japan. We made sure we didn’t, right?

Z: I don’t think we played less in Japan… but maybe we did.

K: Did we? (laughs)

H: But we played three tours in Japan.

Z: We also released three singles in 2008, which is unusual. D’espairsRay had never released three singles in the same year.

Everyone: (laughs).

H: 2008 was a busy year~

K: Yeah.

H: After all didn’t the American tour mess up our schedule? We recorded two singles and went touring in America, then we came back and played at Ajinomoto stadium, released singles, did the promotion, toured, worked on the album again at the end of the year… we were busy all the time.

Q: Isn’t it good to be busy? Because it means that there are a lot of people who want to hear your music.

H: It is good if it means that we are getting more popular.

Everyone: (laughs).

H: But if we look back, we can see that we pretty much had no time to rest in 2008.

Q: I see, because you had lives to play or recording, interviews too and as a result you were busy all the time. You said earlier that TASTE OF CHAOS tour was when you came to enjoy being a stranger to the audience.

H: Yes.

Q: How many bands toured together?

H: The headliners were all the same, but there were bands that joined or left half way through the tour. The number of the bands playing on the side stage got smaller, but basically it was about seven main bands.

K: Yeah.

Q: If you look back, what do you remember about TASTE OF CHAOS tour?

K: Personally for me it was the tour of which I have only painful memories. Maybe in a wayI was forced to learn. There were so many awesome bands there and I realized my own naïveté.

Q: Even though you played overseas so many times, maybe this time it was fresh again, because of all other amazing bands you toured with.

K: Yeah.

Q: What about you, Zero?

Z: Well, until then we played many times in Europe and America and I learned a lot from it. But this time there were a lot of great bands playing with us and everyday after out set was over I watched them perform. Because I kept doing it every day… I think it became the tour that changed me the most. For example, the way I play live.

Q: What exactly changed?

Z: Probably enjoying a concert as a whole, drawing in even those people who had no interest in us. Even if I earnestly try to do that and still I can’t get it across, that’s no good, it is not fun… because just having fun is not good enough, how should I say it? Expressing my emotions, not just the performance,but the way I feel, it is not something that can be seen, but then how can I get it across to the audience? That kind of thing.

Q: You must have learned a lot during those days.

Z: Yeah.

Q: For you, Hizumi, the tour was about being a stranger to the audience, right?

H: A stranger… or rather we just played in front of a lot of people who knew nothing about us, and that is the best place to test ourselves. If people get excited watching us, we are having fun too, and we had a lot of fun. Well, in the beginning we worked really hard, but as we went on and played more and more lives it became easier.

Q: What about you, Tsukasa?

T: Well, leaving the food aside… When we played in places where a lot of people did not know us, of course, I wanted them to get to know us and I tried to draw them in. Moreover, because the live houses were so huge naturally I came to feel that “by any means, by any means” I wanted them to get interested in us. So it became the tour when many times I worked hard without even realizing it. Also we toured together with MUCC and the Underneath and it was great! A bond between us became strong.

Q: After you came back from America you played at Ajinomoto stadium and released a single that was recorded before the tour. Does it mean that you already started working on the next album?

K: I had no doubts when we released [BRILLIANT]. When I brought the song and had the guys listen to it, it wasn’t so that they’d choose it, it was the first time I asked them to let me record the song for the single. I thought: “This is it!”

Q: Do you mean that it was a work that indicated the direction of the single?

K: Yes. I felt strongly that this was simply what I wanted to do.

Q: And you had no doubts about it.

K: None.

Q: During an anniversary live on September 9 you played a medley of your old songs, didn’t you?

Z: Yes, we did.

H: We also played two song switching the instruments.

K: Wouldn’t it be better if we chose just one, either the medley or the “part change” songs?

Everyone: (laughs).

H: In the end we did both…

Q: The songs you played switching the instruments was amazing.

H: But it was horrible (laughs).

Q: But I think for the fans it must have been a treat.

H: Back then we practiced the “part change” during the tour rehearsals.

Q: For whom was it the easiest to switch?

Z: Probably me?

Q: Then contrary to that, who had the most troubles with it?

H: (raises the hand).

Q: Now that you mention it, you were very stiff when you played.

H: Absolutely so.

K: That’s because you cannot play any instruments!

Everyone: (laughs).

H: I had to learn from the very beginning.

Q: It was important that you played the songs at AX, wasn’t it?

H: Well, I am not sure if it was a good thing to do to play it in a public place (laughs). But you know, it was great and I enjoyed playing the “part change”. It wasn’t that we did it just for our fans, but it was great that we had fun ourselves.

Q: In 2009 you played a free live. I was really surprised that you went that far.

H: Yeah, speaking frankly we had to pay for the sound engineers and the place ourselves, right?

Q: There was no such thing as a ticket quota this time.

Everyone: (laughs).

H: Well, it was our 10th anniversary after all.

K: Yeah, so we made a present for our fans.

Q: Either way 2008 was a very busy year for you.

H: Yeah.

Q: And you had no doubt about what you wanted to do?

K: Right now, I can’t help but want to work. Probably if I have free time I am going to think about some weird stuff. Lately I came to enjoy playing guitar so much. I have been watching the performances of many different guitarists and I realized how deep of an instrument guitar is and now I really enjoy making arrangements.

He is <3 But the best part is when his tortured soul tortures his unfortunate bandmates, sometimes I wonder how come they didn't maim him yet (how Hizumi managed to stay in one piece is also a good question) 8D

I suspect he joined the band at the very beginning with the intention of playing bass, but never actually did it and switched to vocals right away.Maybe I should correct that part, since you are right it was two songs, Brilliant and Fascism. There is no explicit distinction between singular and multiple in Japanese most of the time so it can be interpreted both ways. Sorry, my mistake >_<; But I absolutely agree with you, Fascism was brutal, we were sitting on top of each other 8DThey all have issues with Western food lol

the fact Hizumi just raised his hand without saying anything to answer the question about part change cracked me up 8D Now I doubt there was no suggestion from his friend, he just realized his limit and decided to switch to vocal XDDthis episode is enjoyable to read, too, I just wish there were more about the other 2 singles. Thank you ♥♥♥

Wow, already in 2008... :O That was sure a year full of emotions (and work) for Despa. This year it looks similar to that one, so let's see how all the touring will go and what will be in that new album... It's like a thriller :D

He always talks about food, that's the first thing he always says when they travel somewhere. It is beyond me why Japanese people area so fascinated with food, but Tsukasa seems to be an extreme case lolIt was a lot of fun, despite them being awful, but that was just one more thing to enjoy ;DYou're welcome ;)